A long time ago, in another life, I walked away from my time at university with an undergraduate degree in anthropology. I was always drawn to anthropology because I grew up in a country with a very rich, very tangible anthropological past. I mean, by definition, anywhere you find people there’s an anthropological past, but when you can measure, taste, touch, smell, and see that past stretching for thousands of years into the past, that’s a past I think one can call rich. Stepping into that past was a simple matter of driving into the city to one of the most awe-inspiring museums I’ve ever known. In the years that we were there, I can’t tell you how many visitors my parents took to see that museum. Most of the time, I got to go. Later, when I was old enough to drive and had my own car, I even went by myself once or twice. The museum meant that much to me.
When I finally landed on anthropology as my major, it was no wonder that I immediately was torn between the two sides of anthropology: physical and cultural. Having explored another culture and lived in a mixed, international community while living abroad, the interplay between people on the cultural and cognitive level fascinated me. That fascination led me down other paths of study into disciplines and sub-disciplines in the fields of psychology, sociology, and behavioral science. In the end, though, it was the physical path that won out. It all came down to one class in particular: the biological basis for human behavior.
Prior to anthropology, I spent a few semesters trying to make a career out of biology. Unfortunately, those “hard science” degrees require a few too many math classes for my liking. At the time, I had a complete (and completely real) mental block when it came to math. To this day, I am not quite sure how I graduated, that’s how much I struggled with math. Don’t worry, I’ve long since slain that particular dragon. The point is that I have always had a thing for biology, too, and I was a bit bummed that I had to give up my love of anatomy and biology. I was really jazzed about the whole anthro thing, but something was…missing. And that’s when I took that class: the biological basis for human behavior.
That started me down the path of primatology. Primatology deals with the study of primates from their behavior to their presence in the fossil record and the evolution of their physical form. I’ll spare you the total geek-out, but suffice it to say that primatology married everything that interested me at the time. So, off I went, dead set on becoming the world’s premier primatologist.
Then, one day, a professor said to me, “If there is anything else in the world that you want to do other than this, try that first. Academic life sucks. And there is nothing glamorous about standing up to your knees in a swampy jungle with leeches clinging to your legs and monkeys throwing their shit at you.”
That’s when my primatology career came to an end.
But all was not lost. Instead of changing my major to forestry, I instead focused on human development and family studies, a department that brought together the best of psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology, and women’s studies. That’s right, I said “women’s studies.” HDFS, as it was called, was just…cool. What other course of study gives you department credits for taking classes about the history of marriage, child psychology, and the role of women in Western society all in one semester? Plus, that genetics class and that gender roles in Latin America society class I took that same semester? Yup, they counted, too. How cool is that?
That was over 15 years ago. Today, I hardly use a thing I learned in any of those classes. My parents spent a crapload of money in order for me to go to college. I can recall a few handful of moments or lessons that actually serve me today. However, for the vast majority of people who attend college or university, the same holds true. Few professions actually require advanced studies, and even fewer actually build upon the specific foundation established in institutions of higher learning. Instead, what winds up happening is that the individual draws upon the entire synthesized suite of experiences that got them through that time and out into the working world as “college educated” adults.
In other words, your major course of study probably won’t make a difference as much as the various experiences you have during that period of your life. Working, studying, traveling, partying, making stupid decisions and living to tell about it…all those things are what will mix together into a cocktail that you will sip from over and over again as the years move along. You’ll add to the cocktail. You’ll forget some stuff. You’ll remember other stuff. You’ll seek out new experiences because of the old. Everything you did makes you who you are today, and everything you do today will become a part of the person you will be tomorrow. Experience trumps all…even if there is a biological basis for your very human behavior.
The value of a college education comes not from what you studied but from the challenges you face and the experience you undertake. So, for most of us who invested considerable time and money in higher learning, perhaps there is not much value after all. A college or university is just a place. There are other ways to get far richer lessons out of life.
Illuminate Possibilities 